Former prime minister Goh Chok Tong (
"To make a living for ourselves is not going to be easy," said Goh, who is now senior minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍).
"You just look at the world map, you can't even find Singapore," the Sunday Times of Singapore quoted Goh as saying at a campaign rally. "Five hundred million people in Southeast Asia. We are 4 million, less than 1 percent of the population."
The ruling People's Action Party is expected to retain its overwhelming dominance when more than 1.2 million Singaporeans vote, but the opposition has fielded enough candidates to prevent a walkover as in some previous elections.
Critics say that curbs on expression and other strict controls hurt the opposition, though government leaders say they would welcome a serious debate.
So far, election talk has focused more on local issues than on commentary about Singapore's place in the world.
Ruling party candidates point out that they have the political leverage to upgrade neighborhoods for their constituents. Local media, which tends to support government policy, have given heavy coverage to a candidate of the opposition Workers' Party who failed to submit an election form and then gave conflicting accounts of what happened.
Goh said the top concerns for Singapore's prime minister were national security in the face of any terrorist threats and periodic instability in the region, as well as job creation and finding news ways for the economy to grow.
"Security is what keeps a prime minister awake at night. It's a 24-hour job," the newspaper quoted Goh as saying Saturday night.
In 2000, Singapore, a US ally, broke up what it said was a ring of Islamic militants who were plotting to attack Western targets in the city-state.
Singapore's output has "more or less reached the potential of the economy," said Goh, who was prime minister from 1990 to 2004.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
RSS